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At an event in New York last week it launched a 12-inch tablet, the Surface Pro 3, when we thought it would launch a smaller one, the Surface mini. It did so in the hope of carving out a niche for itself as The Company That Makes Tablets For Serious People.

Just how well the bigger Surface Pro 3 will work for serious people will probably come down to just one simple thing: the keyboard. Unless the Surface Pro 3 has a keyboard as good as the keyboard on a laptop – or even almost as good would do, given the other benefits of owning the device – then it’s hard to see it taking its position as a laptop replacement, the way Microsoft intends it.

“Surface Pro 3 is the tablet that can replace your laptop – packing all the performance of a fully powered laptop into a thin, light and beautifully designed device. You’ll love being able to carry a single device for your next class, workday or weekend getaway knowing you have all the power you need," Panos Panay, the corporate vice-president of Microsoft Surface, said in a statement.

With the original Surface and then with the Surface 2, Microsoft got impressively close to making a keyboard you’d want to use all day, provided you paid a little extra for the thicker keyboard with moving keys known as the Type Cover. But not close enough, in my estimation. Between the small, 10-inch screen and the still-too-thin keyboard, it’s hard to use the Surface Pro 2 for long periods of serious work.

Now that the Surface Pro 3 has a 12-inch screen, that first problem looks solved. All that’s left is the keyboard, and Microsoft could be onto something great. Microsoft says the new Type Cover is an improvement on the old one, though apart from an improved typing angle (it now attaches slightly differently) it’s hard to tell from afar what improvements have been made.

Most of the other specs look terrific. It will come with a very sharp, 2160 x 1440 pixel, colour-calibrated display, a 256-pressure-level pen and your choice of processors ranging from an Intel Core i3 all the way up to a Core i7. That’s a lot of processor for a tablet and we’ll have to see what that does to the battery life.

This line from Microsoft – that at last you can have something that you can use for serious work and for play – has been used before when it brought out the Surface Pro 2 and the original Surface. People didn’t really buy it those times.

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Apple has released the schedule for its annual developers’ conference, and at least one person in the know says that schedule includes the launch of some long-awaited mystery product.

What could it be?

The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, or WWDC as it is known, will kick off on June 2 in San Francisco. Completely expected is a new, more health-oriented version of the iPhone and iPad operating system, iOS 8, as well as a new version of the operating system for MacBooks, Mac minis, Mac Pros and iMacs, to be known as Mac OS X 10.10, which Apple says will have a new look.

But wait! Could there be one more thing? Something a little more tangible than a software update?

The website 9to5Mac reports that “sources" have confirmed “Apple is planning to unveil new hardware at this year’s conference".

The mythical Apple TV, perhaps? I mean the actual TV, not the little Apple TV box you can already buy to turn your existing TV into an Apple TV. Though the existence of the little Apple TV does diminish the need for the theoretical big Apple TV.

So how about an iWatch? Given that Google has already come out with what looks like a very nice smart watch, Apple does need to get on its bike and deliver an iWatch sooner rather than later.

Or maybe it will just be something very practical, such as the long-demanded high-resolution (or Retina) version of the MacBook Air?